"Aaah, I'm so bored. Isn't there any good manga or light novel lately?"
In a lavish mansion, a blonde twin-tailed young woman lay sprawled on her bed.
Her emerald-green eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. She tossed her phone aside and flopped like a total couch potato, not wanting to move at all.
Her name was Sanzenin Nagi—the Sanzenin family's heir, a real-world ojou-sama.
Though the Sanzenin clan ranked second among Japan's great families, most of their power was in the U.S.; they were a massive transnational house.
In this generation, however, everyone else was gone—only Grandfather Sanzenin Mikado and Nagi remained. That made Nagi the sole successor.
Calling her "rich" was practically an insult. Her day-to-day spending ran in the billions of yen. On a whim she could dabble in stocks or buy up a supermarket—the kind of thing she could settle with a single sentence.
Because of that, she often ran into kidnappings and assassination attempts. Not fond of going out, she'd developed the habit of staying home and living like a pampered shut-in.
Bored at home and tired of playing the market, her hobbies naturally revolved around time-killers like games, light novels, and manga.
She'd been sick for a while recently—an entire week without improvement—until her close friend Saginomiya Isumi came to visit and she finally got better.
According to Isumi, Nagi had been cursed and possessed by a ghost—classic sleep paralysis. As the Miko of Light, getting rid of a single spirit was finger-snapping easy for Isumi.
With nothing else to do, Nagi picked up her phone again and started scanning game and light-novel rankings.
As a young lady who never had to worry about money or a job, she didn't really need school; for her it was just a place to drop by now and then for fun.
Even so, with a bit of casual study she skipped three grades straight into Hakuō Academy—now a petite (but clearly adult) high-schooler. She mostly didn't attend; ordinary people had no way to become friends with someone like her, so she preferred staying home.
"Hmm… Love Metronome volume two still isn't out? As for Yamada Fairy's Isekai Rhapsody, I'm sick of it already!"
"And why does the heroine keep stripping for fanservice? Ugh. Is the author some exhibitionist old perv?"
"Hmm? A new author—and already trending? Lemme see!"
Nagi quickly found Kurosora Twilight-sensei's title:
My Youth Rom-Com With a Tsundere Twin-Tails and a Black-Stockings Senpai Is Totally Fine.
(This was the name settled on after Hayashi Maki discussed it with editor Sonoko Machida.)
"Wow, that title is long," Nagi muttered, then tapped the preview.
And… she fell right in.
Because the blonde tsundere twin-tails named Hoshino Nagi was basically her.
A rich young lady with few friends, a homebody who loved 2D culture, loved drawing doujins—
…Okay, not that last part. She did draw manga, but not doujins.
Her style was muscled "brawler-magical-girl" comics, iron-pumping Barbie style.
Mildly annoyed at that one difference, Nagi kept reading.
Then—nothing. The preview ended. If she wanted to know whether the MC chose the ojou-sama or the black-stockings senpai, she'd have to wait for the release and buy it.
Nagi writhed. She really wanted to see what came next. If the MC didn't pick Hoshino Nagi, she was going to mail Kurosora Twilight a whole box of razor blades.
"Mm. Kurosora Twilight-sensei writes well. I'll give him a little encouragement—he'd better not let me down."
She tapped Tip casually.
A moment later, Hayashi Maki's phone buzzed. One glance and his eyes nearly popped out. It wasn't that he'd never seen money before—but he'd never seen that much money at once. Demon or not, he was still "growing" and hadn't really brushed shoulders with the ultra-rich.
Deposit received: ¥10,000,000—after taxes.
Hayashi Maki immediately called Sonoko Machida to ask what was going on.
"It's a tip," she sighed. "You got lucky. Some ojou-sama liked your novel and tossed you a donation on a whim."
"By the way, Fushikawa Bunko has a new owner."
"A new owner?" Hayashi Maki was stunned.
Could it be the same ojou-sama who just tipped him? With such a generous hand, it had to be Sanzenin Nagi.
But why had she only noticed his preview a week after it went up?
Naturally, he had no idea about the curse… or that Isumi had tried to visit Nagi and kept getting hopelessly lost—spatially lost. Once, she somehow wandered all the way to Australia.
After hanging up, Hayashi Maki felt dazed. Ten million yen wasn't much to an ojou-sama, but to an easy-to-please normal person, that was basically financial independence. Suddenly he didn't feel like working—what then?
He opened his author account. There was already a comment from the young lady:
Sanzenin Nagi: "Kurosora Twilight-sensei, keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to the rest!"
Well then—if the ojou-sama herself was urging updates and tipping, he couldn't disappoint.
Kurosora Twilight: "I'm drafting volume 3 right now; volume 2 has cleared editorial review. Please look forward to it!"
Nagi nodded, satisfied. Worth buying Fushikawa Bunko, then—this Kurosora Twilight had good instincts. Otherwise she'd just send every editor to camp on his doorstep for updates.
As the new owner, Nagi immediately asked maid Maria to go fetch Kurosora Twilight's latest manuscript. She couldn't wait for the release window—she wanted to read the rest now.
Volume 1 of Hayashi Maki's novel established the two heroines and how they crossed paths with the MC, then rolled into rom-com hijinks and love-triangle mayhem—with a sprinkling of spicy scenes. It was a light novel; without the heroines tossing the MC a little "fanservice," where was the fun?
Hayashi Maki figured he'd soon be receiving Sanzenin Nagi's "razor blades." The plan—hatched with Kasumigaoka Utaha—was to yo-yo the readers for several volumes: make the MC lose his memory, or the heroine lose hers; have a confirmed couple suddenly become "siblings," dive into melodramatic family ethics… then flip it all back again for a perfect ending.
This kind of relentless push-and-pull that sent readers reaching for antacids was bound to attract "knife-mail." But the light-novel scene in this world was still behind; what felt melodramatic to Hayashi Maki would be era-defining to everyone else.
If you can grab readers' hearts and whip up their emotions, you've basically cracked the traffic code—one book to seal your legend.